our services, ah, be our guest at frankfurt airport city, managed by frappe, bought lou ah, ah, ah, this is the w news live from berlin. russia bears down on key cities in eastern new cray. several don't ask suffers intense shelling as russian forces looked to claim a key victory over the don't bass region. also coming up tonight following the deadliest of school shooting in the us in a decade. the governor of texas, now facing accusations of doing nothing on gun control.

ah and brand. gov is good to have you with as we begin tonight with the war in ukraine and russia upping its attacks on the eastern don't bass region. heavy fighting has been reported in and around the industrial city of several don't ask where the regional governor says at least a dozen people have been killed. and shelly, moscow says that it will continue. it's offensive until it achieves it's go. it's the battle face the vera don't ask. it's capture would allow russia to advance into the other half of the don bass region. why the shelling is constant. some 15000 people are believed to be hiding in shelters. hello.

hello is hello 1st addition, 2nd, a 3rd minute area problems. the russians have reportedly surrounded. silverado nets on 3 sides. the governor of lou hans province has warned that evacuations are now too risky. still some are seizing what could be their last opportunity to escape. while you're on the leg, now it seems like the front is all around it for i think he's around the death that we can see trucks from the all, maybe be the feelings around the cd. so it seems like the that to me is about to for him. elsewhere and don bass trains are filling up as people seek the relative safety of western ukraine. since the war broke out, ukraine has become a country synonymous with defiance. but russia's latest offensive is testing

its limits. my country is dying, says this man. i am worried, but we will win each one. but when i asked our correspond the rebecca readers about the situation in the dawn bash reach while you heard some of it there? brand some in the situation in don bass is daya and it's getting worse because the governor of don yet sc saying that 3 cities in that region have now been taken by the russian forces and that they are advancing. the governor of new hans square that sits ever done yet is situated and now where the fighting is centered around. they're saying that the russians are just trying to destroy that city. it's has been completely shelled, constantly bombarded. and as you heard in that report saying that citizens who haven't escaped yet who haven't been able to evacuate, it's probably too late to do so with many of the roads completely cut off. and those that are still available still open being continually shelled. so it's just

a really terrible and terrifying situation. there authorities here and you can hear in ukraine saying that that battle for don bass is really, is really going to be really instrumental in what happens in this country. could really feel a fate of this country. the foreign ministers saying that this is the worst battle that europe has seen since world war 2, and he's really urgently calling for those foreign weapons that have been promised to ukraine to be delivered as swiftly as possible so that they're able to try and hope this current advance and even try and push back russians from these areas. and we're beginning to, we've been in this war now for more than 3 months. what about people there were you were in the ukrainian capital p v. how were they coping with what's happening around? slid is quite a different scene here. obviously a branch i've just returned to ukraine from a couple of weeks out of the country. and even in the time i've been gone,

the city does feel different here where i am and the weather has changed. spring is in the air, and there are more shops and cafes open more people out on the streets. but that belies the danger and, and the fear that still felt by many people here. and of course, people you know, the war is on the tip of every one's tongue. it's all that anybody's talking about . and people are really worried. the war is only happening, a few 100 kilometers away, and it's certainly not something that people hear forgetting the country still under martial law. and there's still a curfew. and the sounds of sirens can still be heard. the threat of possible missiles he is still ever present and but that immediate danger not being felt quite like it was a few weeks ago. but that feeling that we ukraine will come out victorious and will win, is still ever present among the people that you speak to here. job is rebeca rid of the police tonight from steve has always rebecca, thank you. a day after the deadly of school shooting that the u. s. have seen in a decade,

accusations and anger or on display 21. people were killed tuesday inside the texas elementary school. today the governor of texas was confronted with his old record on gun violence to sit down, you're out of your out of line at a bar. i know governor greg ab, it was interrupted by you see the man standing there, democratic rival, better were work. who accused habit of doing nothing to address gun violence. on tuesday, an 18 year old gunman barricaded himself inside a classroom and shot dead 19 children in 2 teachers. he was later killed in a shootout with police, with grief turning to anger as the country reels from yet another mass shooting americans are again confronting the question, why can be done to stop gun bye? it's grieving family members waiting to know if their kid survived. we can get anything we can get any anything as little as they're okay. they're not okay.

or we're still waiting or you know, no, no information has been received any of the parents or they have alyssa for her name in here. so she not here. so real it on down. underlings, antonio, to look, we find her at least 19 children and 2 teachers were killed in this texas elementary school. the death toll is expected to rise. residence in the small town of valley are still trying to process the tragedy. rick, my ard, i just didn't ever expect anything like that to happen here with men. person that did this issue this week he was going to high school here it was a student here with more than 200 mass shootings in the u. s. so far this year, many americans asking themselves the same question over and over again, including and be a coach steve kerr, when are we gotta do something?

i'm tired, i'm so i'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to to the devastated families that are out there. i'm so tired of the excuse me, i'm sorry, i'm tired of moments with filess enough. as gun control is back in the political debate. the people who valdez gather to more in after the deadly mass shooting something far too many families and friends have to go through in the u. s. or earlier i spoke with jake charles, he's the executive director of the center for fire arms law at duke university in north carolina. i asked him, why does it remain practically impossible to enact sensible gun control laws in the us? right, absolutely. so a couple things. one is that the u. s. second amendment. it was ratified in 1791 and it played almost no role in american history for about 200 years. and in 2008,

the united states supreme court said it protects an individual, right. i'm connected to service in the militia. the introductory clause of our 2nd amendment talks about a well regulated militia, but the court said it's unconnected to that. and it's actually primary purpose is for self defense. and really what we've seen is proponents of broad and expansive gun rights have latched onto this self defense explanation of the right to keep and bear arms. and that many states, including taxes have loosened to their gun gun laws just in the last few years. and so what we see is gun laws becoming looser and even after a tragic, mastered events like this. at the same time, the supreme court has said that although the 2nd amendment protects an individual right, it leaves lots of rooms for legislatures to enact gun regulations. and we just have not seen congress or the states and acting many of those regulations. we heard from you as president by yesterday,

basically telling the country we need to find our backbone here we need to pass legislation for better sensible gun to control. all the polls show that the vast majority of americans are in favor of background checks. for example, for people who want to buy fire arms and yet that is the very legislation that is always shot down in the us congress. what is happening here is this, is this the gun lobby controlling congress in the will of the people being ignored? it's really hard to know exactly why really some popular measures, including background checks are not being passed at the national level, especially. there's a couple of explanations. one, as you mentioned, the national rifle association is very powerful, is mobilizing and activating voters for whom gun rights issues are their number one issue. and some of them are single issue voters on that one issue. a lot of it has

to do with political polarization, that the parties are the 2 parties in united states or to. busy so far apart on issues that there becomes a lot less room to compromise. and some of it was with structural features about the united states congress, where there are 2 members from each state in the united states senate no matter what size state that is, that stops a lot of the measures that would gain a large national popularity like universal background checks don't actually translate into legislation. i was reading today, just the statistics are about the number of fire arms and guns in the world in the united states. there are enough fire arms for every american citizen to possess one and then there would be $60.00 to $70000000.00 extra to go around with so many weapons like that, just in circulation in the country. is it realistic to expect that legislation will ever be able to address this problem? that's right. there are about 400000000 private firearms own in the united states

now, which is a dramatic increase even from recent times in u. s. history. and so one of the arguments that i think is a good one that you're raising is that restrictions on the supply of firearms might actually not do anything where we could stop the sale of all private firearms united states tomorrow. and we would still have more firearms and we have people in the united states. so legislation that looks not specifically at those restrictions on supply. but on identifying the people. busy who are most at risk of violence and providing different resources, or in some cases, temporarily removing the guns from those people has shown promise in some places. and we've actually seen some bipartisan efforts of the state level where states have enacted laws, often called red flag laws. that allow someone to go into court and get an order. busy to temporarily remove someone's firearm. when that person is shown to be a risk of imminent harm to themselves or others. you know, it'll be interesting to see if we could do anything like that on

a federal level being put into legislation. j. charles, executive director of the center for fire arms law at duke university. we appreciate your time and your insights tonight. thank you. thanks out me of the board and ukraine has been front and center at this year's can film festival today was no exception. the filmmakers behind the ukrainian film entry butterfly vision used their appearance to display an anti russian protest. ben, it's the story of a female fighter lillia, a ukrainian soldier. after 2 months as a russian prisoner, she is released while in jail. she hadn't repeatedly raped the wife osh law. now the question is, how will she ever find peace again? especially when she later finds out that she's pregnant? ah, it's the feature film debut of ukrainian director. mac seemed not going naturally because it's a story of survival. it's a story of

a will to survive and to keep standing and fighting, and her i hope it would make its contribution into our general survival standing and fighting as ukraine. filming started at the beginning of last year in don bus, where fighting had been going on for years before the major russian attack there earlier this year. i the fictional story they were producing, turned into reality with all the horrors of a war whose end is not in sight. star more thought of them sicily, our general and the cultural identity in particular is under attack. and that's why each case of ukraine, nan culture being successful, being presented, being a loud and noticed a is, is a part of us still being alive and presenting the film here in con, also shows that the war affects everyone, including those on the red carpet at

a glamorous film festival. you're watching the w news. rob once is up next with the w business news. i will see you tomorrow with hold every day for us and for our planet. global ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation. how do we make cities greener.